Thread by @GeorgePeretzQC

What to do about a Prime Minister who persistently says things to Parliament that aren’t true? fullfact.org/news/dawn-butl…

One lesson from civil trial advocacy is that it’s generally not worth getting into a debate about whether someone is lying (deliberate dishonesty): that is hard to prove, and what matters is whether they say things that are incorrect.

So I think the discipline of not throwing around accusations of lying is generally a good one: the focus should be on the error rather than the state of mind of the maker of the statement.

But there is a very serious problem if the PM and other ministers are not called out for making clear factual errors: effective accountability depends on those who are accountable telling the truth to those holding them to account.

So what to do?

There should be (if there isn’t already) a mechanism for reporting factual inaccuracies by the PM and other ministers to the Speaker: and the Speaker should (perhaps after a report from eg Full Fact) be able to require a formal correction from the minister concerned.

The process should be done quickly so as to avoid, as far as possible, the matter going stale.

In serious cases that correction should be delivered orally to the HoC by the minister (or PM) concerned: in the spot just before PM’s questions.

That would seem to me to be a far more direct and effective way of dealing with the (now serious) problem than changing the HoC’s rules on accusing other members of dishonesty.